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Poet Anthony Anaxagorou stands in the National Poetry Library at Southbank Centre
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Think Aloud: contemporary poetry – why I am not a poet

When is a poet not a poet?

Podcast
Reading time 1 minute read
Originally posted Mon 15 Jul 2019

In this June 2019 episode of Think Aloud, presented by Harriet Fitch Little, we turned our attention to poetry, and sat down with the London poet and founder of poetry collective Out-Spoken, Anthony Anaxagorou.

With him we delve into how poetry can rewrite history, and bring unreported issues to the surface. We also discuss his own journey through poetry, developing and establishing his own voice, and subverting the conventions of performance poetry to open up the medium.

We also hear from South Korean poet Kim Hyesoon, for whom breaking established rules has been key to her poetry, on why the language of women comes from more than just the mouth.

‘I mean as a kid I absolutely despised poetry… it was as dry as trigonometry… it was like looking at a traffic cone’

Anthony Anaxagorou